New Money, New Attitudes – Study Sheds Light on Elites’ Contradictory Relationship with the Nordic Welfare Model

Many individuals who have accumulated wealth in emerging sectors view the public sector as inefficient and dysfunctional. At the same time, it has provided them with opportunities to grow their own wealth.

A study entitled “Keeping New Money on Board: The New Nordic Wealth Elites and the Future of the Welfare Model”, part of the Future Challenges in the Nordic Countries research programme, examines the relationship between new economic elites and the Nordic welfare state in Finland and Sweden.

One of the key findings of the study is that a significant proportion of the new elites adopt a critical stance towards the welfare state. Their criticism is directed in particular at the inefficiency of the public sector and at the structures of social security, such as support for the unemployed or low-income groups.

– Many of those interviewed for the study believe that the public sector does not function properly. Instead, they see themselves as saviours who solve the public sector’s problems, says project leader Hanna Kuusela, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Jyväskylä.

The study has focused in particular on individuals who have recently accumulated wealth in the social and healthcare sector, the education sector and the technology sector. Their views have been explored through more than 70 research interviews. In addition, media materials have been used as a data source to examine how contemporary elites are portrayed or portray themselves in public debate. Public sources such as tax records, annual reports and company registers have also been utilised in the research.

However, many of the interviewees have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with the public sector, as it is often their companies’ largest client and a vital condition for their business operations.

According to the project’s preliminary findings in Finland, many young high achievers in the technology sector nevertheless stand out from the group, as many of them support the Nordic model. They are the subject of research at the University of Helsinki, where founders and executives of companies leveraging new digital technologies were interviewed. These leading figures of the new economy consider themselves to have benefited substantially from the Nordic welfare state and therefore regard its preservation as important for future generations as well.

In one of the two Finnish sub-studies, conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, the researchers interviewed around 90 further individuals, who have made large charitable donations. Their attitudes towards the Nordic social model are also often positive.

– In these people’s discourse, private philanthropy does not compete with the welfare state; rather, it is seen as part of an ethos of shared responsibility, Kuusela says.

There are some differences between the two countries in terms of the background of the interviewees, as in Sweden, the study conducted at the University of Stockholm includes individuals who have become wealthy in the education sector. In Sweden the marketization of education has created new wealthy elite groups and has been an object of broad public discussion. This new "corporate welfare elite" regard themselves as entrepreneurs who offer the Swedish school sector innovation, cost efficiency and good results in terms of education – but they remain the subject of much public critique.

– In Finland, there is currently hardly any discussion at all about opening up primary or secondary education to the market, Kuusela notes.

The research project will publish, among other outputs, the English-language book Rich Radicals, to be released later this year, which examines Finnish elites and their views on the Nordic model. Several research articles will also be published as the project approaches its conclusion.

Further information:

Hanna Kuusela
Associate Professor, University of Jyväskylä
hanna.r.kuusela@jyu.fi